Friday, April 18, 2008

Grace Wang Seeks to Set Record Straight

The New York Times and Washington Post have reported on the plight of Grace Wang, and the Times has provided the above photo depicting the viciousness of the confrontation faced by Wang. Attendants of the pro-Tibet vigil have reported to us that the rhetoric directed at her was largely unfit for print.

But Grace Wang's role in the conflicting demonstrations has been widely misunderstood, especially by those in the Chinese blogosphere that have demanded that her life be terminated by any number of creative or ancient means. She was not a party to either side. As she has explained and participants of the vigil have confirmed, she arrived at what had become a chaotic scene and sought to mediate between the two groups and encourage a more peaceful, understanding, and thoughtful demonstration.

She has repeatedly made clear that she does not advocate Tibetan independence to any who will listen. Unfortunately, the pro-China demonstrators seem to have had little interest and drown her out with chants and accusations. She does, however, advocate fair treatment and more freedom for Tibet, much as she advocates more freedom throughout China.

As her message is slowly getting out, Grace tells us that some of the thousands of emails she has received have been supportive - including emails from China - though that portion remains a minority.

[Update 5:49 pm 4/18/08]WRAL also ran the story last night and have published an article on their website.

6 comments:

Anonymous
said...

The Duke Chinese Students and Scholars Association must be immediately suspended from all campus activities until a full investiagtion is conducted.What kind of educational institution is Duke if it allows such kind of students to carry out in person bully and cyber bullying.Duke student Qian Fangzhou should also be investigated for his hate speech on line.This is not a political issue or an Olympic issue. It is an issue about protecting free speech and against hate speech. Students at Duke should not feel intimidated by a mob mentality which is fully apparent in the photo. Duke Student Affairs must demand DCSSA to submit the entire unedited version of the original video tape for investigation. Failing that, DCSSA's connection to Duke must be revoked.

Please allow different views - that is part of the right of 'freedom of speech'. To date, I have seen little reports showing the Chinese students' side of the story. Interviews were heavily sided with Grace Wang only. The public deserves to see all sides of the story as they have the rights to make judgement based on the full facts - to which I have not had access so far.

The DCSSA has been reluctant to speak publicly, and we have not been able to speak with them yet. We have a meeting scheduled for tomorrow, after which we will hopefully have a better idea of their positions.

Yep------these days people including the so called Major Mass Media are getting better and better at showing the audience what they want to show & directing the audience to where they want to---- Oh, in the name of God, "Free Speech!"

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